


Four in One

by Bwilla



Series: Tamora Pierce Soulmate AUs [1]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen, Multi, Soulmate AU, but could be romantic, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 09:02:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7884934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bwilla/pseuds/Bwilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you to the wonderful lydvee for betaing!</p>
    </blockquote>





	Four in One

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the wonderful lydvee for betaing!

Daja felt it for the first time as she looked around the unfriendly room, seeing people deliberately move so she could not sit. The bone-deep inaudible click sang through her body as a petite girl with a button nose and a set jaw came up and announced that the Trader could sit with her. Bones still quaking Daja could do nothing but follow 'Lady Sandrilene fa Toren' to a seat. With the lady's grin, and heavily accented trader-talk, Daja relaxed. Though she could still feel the quiver when she focused she let it go. 

It didn't matter after all- a lady noble? It would never work.

The second time, she had just been moved into Discipline Cottage for her safety. The next day a boy was brought to the cottage. She came out of her room feeling a pull, and as she saw the bronze skinned boy she felt another click in her bones.

“Oi, feelers off,” the boy shot at the dedicate that held him, loosely pushing the hands off none too lightly. Her eyebrows raised recognizing thieves' cant. He might be clean, and dressed in good clothes, but his attitude and bearing still screamed of his origins. There was no reaction from the boy, so he probably didn't know. Daja wasn't going to tell him.

The third and last time, was when Sandry and a red-haired girl came by, bags of their things at their side. As she spoke with the two, she saw the disgust on the girl's (Tris's?) face and hoped it was just sounding off for the reintroduction of the blue-eyed noble.

Trapped under the coal, as Sandry did something she could not see, she felt a settling, like a lock that has it's tumblers fall into place. She was complete now, whole in a way she had never been before.“Try to reach it now,” she was told and reaching with her magic, wildly different than just moments before, and hit the earth's heat.

XxX

The spell on her specs triggered the sight of not just magic- or maybe it was a sort of magic, the strings she saw. Scarlet and strong, three threads stretched from her pinky, one off to the Water Temple, one to the bay, and the last toward home. They twined around the magical bonds to her friends, though she had never seen or felt them before that day.  
It made a lovely blend with each in their own way. Love and Daja was a powerful blend of orange and red, fire and steel, passion and the steady strength of worked metal. In the two threads leading toward Sandry they were almost impossible to tell apart. Love was as much a part of Sandry as breathing, more than even her magic. Tris knew that Sandry would never be able to pull herself from them. Briar on the other hand, the red clashed with his green, but both were made all the brighter for it.

XxX  
The first time he was a little too busy to notice, what with the gigantic water cyclone bearing down on them. But if he had the time he would have felt his arm burn as a third of a circle carved itself into his flesh. He didn't notice until the bath that night, but he didn't know that it was there because of Sandry.  
Though she had said that Briar was 'one of them' before, the first time she had truly felt like an 'us' was when Daja flew to her rescue, and Briar's quick fists came to her assistance; the clincher was Tris, maybe she just did it for Bear, but to Sandry it was a sign that the other girl felt like she was part of them, or else she wouldn't have stepped in at all.

The second time was on the wall, surrounded by a lightning net. As Tris's grey eyes focused on them shock filled her face. She couldn't believe that they had come, that her revenge was theirs. Once again he ignored the burn, focusing on pirates and sharpening thorns.

The circle became fully formed months later as Sandry stood before Polyam telling her that she was doing dishonor to her friend, and Tris giving her a scolding on how Traders trade. Daja's eyes as she stared at the three of them were wide, the rush of affection and completeness caused a burn on his flesh.

Later as the boy of the group split open another aloe leaf he saw the circle on his flesh. He heard Tris sigh as she gave the pot another stir and he glanced up at her, then to Sandry weaving in the dirt, and to Daja who was looking over her vine. 'Oh,' he thought smiling back down as four knots formed on his arm.  
XxX  
Sandry sighed as she sunk into the hot bath- rubbing the sore muscles that had cramped from days bending over cloth infusing oils into the weave. Not to mention the exhaustion that came from the magical aspect of the work. Lark was in another bath enjoying the same treatment with Rosethorn. After a long soak she sat on the edge of tub to rinse out her hair. The copper wall in front of her reflected the surface of the pool. On the pool surface was another reflection- her back.  
She had known about the mark, had even seen it before when her parents and Prisi had held a mirror for her. When she had no friends, while they moved from place to place the lumpy circle on the small of her back had given her comfort.  
Seeing the circle now though she didn't just see it as a sign of future happiness, or as who she would love. Sandry awkwardly ran a finger over the circle a green knot, a red-orange one, and blue. Her fingers skipped over her knot as she completed the shape with a smile.  
There was no need to tell the others, if they didn't already know. Truthfully it didn't change anything, the four of them were still one, connected through magic and fate and love.


End file.
